WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is an original cosponsor of bipartisan legislation to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The FOIA Improvement Act was introduced by Senator John Cornyn of Texas and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill is nearly identical to legislation that unanimously passed the Senate last December. It requires federal agencies to operate under a “presumption of openness” when considering the release of government information under the Freedom of Information Act, and it aims to reduce the overuse of exemptions to withhold information from the public. The legislation also provides the Office of Government Information Services with additional independence and authority to carry out its work.
“The government ought to be accountable to the people, and transparency yields accountability. Unfortunately, federal agencies continue to find creative ways to avoid the level of transparency that FOIA was designed to foster. This bill takes an important step stop agencies from hiding behind an exemption solely to protect their public image. Instead, it requires agencies to disclose information unless they reasonably foresee that disclosure would harm an interest that an exemption protects. Additionally, the bill provides for the creation of a consolidated online request portal for folks to submit their requests, while recognizing that agencies also need flexibility to process and respond to their FOIA requests, rather than a mandated one-size-fits-all approach. This bill strikes the right balance as it improves the public’s ability to request information from the government,” Grassley said.
Grassley has placed the FOIA Improvement Act on this week's Senate Judiciary Committee agenda.
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